I didn’t quite know what to say as I sat across the table from Jongin Kim, President of Oikos University in Oakland, California. Oikos, if you recall, became the site of the third deadliest University shooting in US history on April 2nd, 2012, when a former student opened fire on the campus, killing seven and wounding three others.
The gunman reportedly entered a classroom brandishing a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and after ordering everyone to line up against the wall, declared, “I’m going to kill you all,” and then opened fire.
Oikos is a small, mostly Korean, Christian school of about 130 students, the majority of whom have immigrated from South Korea to study at the school. The school has struggled to stay afloat financially, and (from what I gather) the majority of the faculty and staff (including the President of the school) have either volunteered their time, or have not taken a pay check in years. And this was the situation before the shooting took place. In light of the fragility of the school’s situation, it would seem doubtful that it could survive in the aftermath of what is widely regarded as the most deadly massacre in the history of Oakland, California.
Yet, Oikos lives on.
The news of the shooting was the first I had ever heard of Oikos. I neither knew of their existence nor of any associates who were connected to them. Yet, when I heard the news I had a deep desire to visit Oikos to see if there was any way that I could minister to them in their time of need.
That opportunity did not arrive until recently, when a friend of mine who teaches there invited me to come and speak in one of their chapel services. I was happy to accept the invitation, and was pleased to see the Chapel auditorium filled with vibrant worshippers when I arrived.
Oikos, as I have come to understand, had 130 students at the time of the shooting. The result as that, as you might imagine, many of the students left the school in the middle of the term. But, by the grace of God, the school now hosts more than 100 students once again, and the numbers are growing.
While I could see the pain in the faces of the faculty and staff as I asked them about the shooting and about the school’s path to recovery, I could also see a glimmer of hope in their eyes, and a passionate love for God and his people. Apart from that hope and that love, Oikos would not have survived the events of April 12th, 2012, and the gunman would not only have killed 7 members of the Oikos family, but would have killed Oikos as well.
“The man who shot our students and staff,” said President Kim, “didn’t know that he belonged to the Father’s house. We are family: Oikos means ‘household’ in Greek. He did not understand what he belonged to.”
We can rest assured that the members of the Oikos family know what they belong to. We should applaud their faith and their determination to stand through one of the most intense crises of our generation.
